It's very interesting that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence with Benjamin Franklin originally. They took this life liberty and the pursuit of happiness from John Locke was a formula that lock had at Britain and lock in the original formula said life
liberty and the pursuit of property and
Jefferson was was a philosopher and he'd
changed that to the pursuit of happiness
what's interesting also is in the
original in in Virginia in their
document it said life liberty and the
pursuit and the obtaining of happiness
so he took out obtaining and the reason
for that is Jefferson was a student of
the classics and Aristotle argued in his
famous book the ethics that happiness
could not be determined at any one point
in a person's life that happiness could
actually only be discernible at the end
of a person's life after they lived
their full life whether or not they
lived a happy life or a wretched life
and and what's interesting from an
Islamic perspective is the the word
happiness in Old English comes from a
root word happy which is lock or fate
and that's why a hapless person is
somebody without any luck the idea of
happiness is that your fate is something
that you're actually pleased with its 30
La Belle cuddle it's being pleased with
what Allah or God has decreed for you
that is true happiness and and people
are wretched in the world because they
reject their circumstances it doesn't
mean they can't change their search
stances but they're sad about the past
you can't change the past so to lose
your happiness over what's happened in
the past is actually not using the
intellect correctly so the pursuit of
happiness is according to Muslim
ethicists as well is the pursuit of a
moral and virtuous life that is
something that is pleasing and the word
pleasure which people associate with
happiness comes from the same root of
please and plus or the original meeting
was to please another so real pleasure
is in the service of others and that's
why the happiest of all people in our
belief is the prophet muhammad
sallallahu said him and no one served
people more than the Prophet his life
from the beginning to the end was a life
of service even before Islam he was
serving and that's why it's a diva when
when when he said to her what had
happened on the mount of light Khadijah
said God will never forsake you you feed
the hungry you take care of the orphan
you'd help the widow you take care of
those in distress the proof that she had
was his serving other people so that is
the real secret of happiness and in
philosophy it's called the hedonistic
principle that real pleasure the real
hedonism is the pleasure derived from
serving others and that's why Matt off
is a good example of somebody who
pursued false happiness and now he's the
most wretched of the wretched he
destroyed his life he destroyed the life
of others and he's stuck with himself in
a lonely cell for a hundred and fifty
years the opposite of that are those
people who serve even the poorest of
poor because everybody can serve the
street sweeper can serve the poorest
support conserve and that's why real
happiness we believe Santa is in service
and and finally the prophets of light is
to them at the root of our religion is
the concept of happiness because sada is
what we are
looking for and sad happiness is the
only thing in the world that is an N and
not a means when you ask people what do
you want like I want to be successful
why because I want to make a lot of
money why because I want it's always
something else but if you ask them
finally get to the finals they say
because I want to be happy and then you
ask them why do you want to be happy
there's there's no reason to be happy
that's an end in itself and that is
indicative of the fact that what we
really want is eternal happiness that's
what the human soul is striving for it
to be happy eternally
he had a wonderful sense of hearing we
have jokes that he told that her still
mention on min bars today he had a court
jester know a man who he loved and night
man was was he was I mean if you existed
today and the Muslim communities they
chase him out of the mission I'm this is
a man who took own Maktoum the blind man
to somebody he had argued with and he
told him that it was that person and it
was actually earth man praying and
ulmerton why not was started hitting him
and when a man finish his prayer he said
what's going on and he said oh my god I
thought you were so and so and he said
who told you said no I man and her Minds
there snickering I'm in this if we had a
character like that and the Muslim
messages today but the Prophet not only
put up with him he laughed with him he
smiled with him one of his name's Imam
suply records one of his names of the
hack The Laughing prophet and he smiled
and they could see the molars of his
mouth when he I mean he really enjoyed
he never let me lata he never
boisterously laughed he didn't make loud
sounds but he would really heartily
enjoy a good sense of humor and so that
the joy joy is part of life and God you
know that the logician say that the
definition of the human is a logical or
rational animal but his description in
logic according to the Muslims is hi
alanna ubach a visible animal or an
animal that laughs that God put us in
look at this I mean this is such a
beautiful point in the Quran one knew
who Wow of haka were AB cup and he is
the one that made you laugh and made you
cry Athena raji says is in his
commentary about this God is pointing
out to us whoo whoo whoo whoo that he is
the one that made you that and for
dinner Roger says the reason that he
emphasizes that by saying what underhell
to Latakia
reason you emphasize it because people
laugh for different reasons what one
person finds funny another person
doesn't find funny it's often the cause
of wars so the fact that people laugh at
different things is a proof that it's
God that makes them laugh because if it
was some objective thing out in the
world that made all of us laugh at the
same thing we could identify it but we
can't identify people have twisted
senses of humor people laugh at the
misfortunes of other people
schadenfreude the Germans even have a
word for it so do the Arabs by the way
schemata to be to find pleasure in the
misfortunes of others which the Prophet
hated so that idea that God makes us
laugh and makes us cry and if you get
into theology you get into some very
interesting debates about you know
whether God has a sense of humor or not
and in the book is considered al sefa
according to the a30 school that it's
actually an attribute laughing but it's
obviously not anything anthropomorphic
so whereas the traditional
interpretation was it's his would have
blond so our our God loves joy because
he created us as joyful creatures and
the greatest joy that you can have is in
knowledge of God so are we I'm just
gonna open this question up to whoever
would like to answer it if this is the
case why do we have this difficulty of
many stern-faced Muslims why do we have
something that really disturbed me when
I saw we had Dahlia moga head head of
the muslim center for muslim studies at
at gallup up here and they released a
report in early 2009 that surveyed
american muslims and some of the the
dimensions that they measured were
psychological dimensions are emotional
and one of the things that struck me
immediately was the level the high
reported levels of anger among many of
our youth in fact muslim-american use
and I was really struck by that what was
interesting to me was that there was
more anger than sadness and I kind of
thought well maybe maybe we we've
somehow given the signal that anger is
acceptable in a way that sadness isn't
you know sadness maybe shows weakness
and anger shows a kind of strength so
among males in particular might be
acceptable but what's going on I mean
what is going on that we don't have
enough happy reported happiness in our
community well one thing I know people
always say I look at root words and
things like that some reason I was like
this Greek guy on my great big fat greek
wedding or something but the word anger
the root word of that is means pain it
comes from a root word which runs and we
also get anxiety from the same root of
which in Arabic
the poor the Quran reminds us that the
pursuit of the the pleasure of God is
actually what we should be happy about
Soledad cattleya far higher on me manage
my own let them be happy about that and
because it's better than the material
pursuit that the others are engaged in
and the Quran also says that hakimoto
cathode had taught from on ma qabo that
vying for material goods has you
preoccupied until you visit your graves
and and so the real happiness is in this
pursuit of the pleasure of God we
believe that but the beauty of pursuing
the pleasure of God is that he has made
so many venues in the world to pursue
his pleasure there are so many ways and
the secret is in the intention of the
human being why are you doing what
you're doing if it's a productive
positive thing and you have the right
intention you are pursuing happiness for
the sake of God and that's what we have
to inculcate into our young people
particularly that they have to follow
what they are inclined to follow in
productive and positive ways because
that is what God has given them and this
is when when societies are great and
strong is when they allow people to
flourish and and the actual word
eudaimonia in Aristotle's ethics which
means happiness also means flourishing
and flourishing SAT real sahaja real
flourishing is when the soul is allowed
to grow a diplomatic aha they have had
success and who is happier other than
successful people they have had success
those who caused the soul to flourish
and grow zakah and purify it through its
growth bucket hob Amanda seja and they
are failures and I
see sad and unhappy those who stunt the
growth of the soul the word for learning
in our tradition Tavia is the same from
Rob Robin an amine the nurturer of the
world God causes things to grow he
caused these flowers to grow and that is
the intention of the Creator for the
human soul to flourish like the flower
but if we stunt the growth by not
watering it by neglecting it with
spiritual pursuit by neglecting it with
worship then the soul dies and dries up
like these flowers will die and dry up
when they're not given their their water
and their sustenance
you